{"id":1029,"date":"2018-05-24T14:56:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T18:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2022-08-29T18:04:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T18:04:57","slug":"7-tips-for-setting-a-healthy-foundation-for-infant-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/7-tips-for-setting-a-healthy-foundation-for-infant-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Tips for Setting a Healthy Foundation for Infant Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A healthy foundation for infant sleep<\/strong> is key to keeping our baby&#8217;s healthy and developing as they should. Adequate sleep is proven to help a child\u2019s cognitive development, emotional balance, behavior and overall health. &nbsp;Fostering healthy sleep habits with your little one right out of the gate will set you up for success!&nbsp; Although we don\u2019t sleep train babies until 4 months from their <em>estimated due date<\/em>, there are steps you can take to instill a healthy foundation for infant right now.<\/p>\n<h2>Steps to Build a Healthy Foundation for Infant Sleep<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;ll notice your new baby seems to be more active during the night and sleeping more during the day. &nbsp;The reason for this is <em>day\/night confusion<\/em>. This is because your baby is used to being rocked to sleep during the day in the womb and he was actually awake and kicking while you were sleeping! &nbsp;To help fix this, around Week 2, you can do the following:\n<ul>\n<li>Expose your baby to natural light during the day and make it as dark as possible at night<\/li>\n<li>Be engaging during daytime feeds, and at night minimize interaction during feeds<\/li>\n<li>During diaper changes at night make it quick and only use dim light<\/li>\n<li>Play and interact as much as possible during the day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Use blackout curtains<em>.<\/em> &nbsp;The darkness will help to naturally stimulate melatonin production in your baby&#8217;s brain which will help him reach a deep and restorative sleep.<\/li>\n<li>Use continuous white noise for all sleep. White noise is very comforting to babies, it replicates the mother&#8217;s womb. &nbsp;It also helps to block out background noise in the house.<\/li>\n<li>Your baby is too young for a formal bedtime, but you can set a <em>simple and consistent <\/em>bedtime routine that you repeat every night before bed.<\/li>\n<li>You can <em>practice<\/em> laying your baby down to sleep <em>&#8220;<\/em>drowsy but awake<em>&#8220;<\/em> for bedtime, in an effort to not create a feed to sleep or rock to sleep association.<\/li>\n<li>If you are using a co-sleeper, rock n play or are bed sharing start placing baby down in their crib around 6-8 weeks old during naps to start familiarizing them with their permanent sleeping environment<\/li>\n<li>Always place your swaddled baby <em>down on his back<\/em>, without any blankets or stuffed animals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Using these tips early on will prepare your baby for <strong>independent sleep<\/strong> when their sleep cycle matures around 4 months old.<\/p>\n<p>Written by <span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Carolynne J. Harvey<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Schedule your free 15 min consultation by filling out the form below<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&lt;!&#8211; [if lte IE 8]&gt;<br \/>\n<b>Have additional question about your toddler and want to learn more toddler sleep tactics? Schedule your <a href=\"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/scheduler\/\">free 15 minute consultation with one of our certified Sleep Experts<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A healthy foundation for infant sleep is key to keeping our baby&#8217;s healthy and developing as they should. Adequate sleep is proven to help a child\u2019s cognitive development, emotional balance, behavior and overall health. &nbsp;Fostering healthy sleep habits with your little one right out of the gate will set you up for success!&nbsp; Although we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28,25],"tags":[33,34],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6352,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions\/6352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreambabysleep.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}